Aging & Lifetimes - Microscopy of Uranium Hydride in FY2020 [Slides]
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A thorough post-irradiation examination campaign of medium burnup Sodium Fast Reactor (SFR) mixed oxide (MOX) fuel has been undertaken over the past two years to better understand the performance at intermediate burnup of this annular fuel design. Non-destructive examinations as well as destructive examinations of two pins have been recently published by the authors, providing data regarding the performance at macro-scale. The analyses of selected samples have continued to provide more details regarding the overall microstructure and, particularly, the fuel-cladding interaction.
This LDRD supported efforts to significantly advance the scanning ultrafast electron microscope (SUEM) for spatial-temporal mapping of charge carrier dynamics in semiconductor materials and microelectronic devices. Sandia's SUEM capability in Livermore, CA, was built and demonstrated with previous LDRD funding; however, the stability and usability of the tool limited the throughput for analyzing samples. A new laser alignment strategy improved the stability of the SUEM, and the design and characterization of a new micro-channel plate (MCP)- based detector improved the signal-to-noise of the SUEM signal detection. These enhancements to the SUEM system improved throughput by over two orders of magnitude (before, a single time series of SUEM measurements would take several days to several weeks to acquire; now, the same measurements can be completed in~90 minutes in an automated fashion). The SUEM system can now be routinely used as an analytical instrument and will be a central part of several multi-year projects starting in FY22.
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This research will provide new methods to determine the structures and compositions of heterogeneous catalysts as they exist in reaction conditions. The new tools will make it possible to understand how extremely small material structures—ones in a size range spanning from single atoms to larger polyatomic clusters—make it possible to carry out highly selective chemical transformations required to synthesize useful materials as well as for efficient energy production and utilization. The tools will make it possible to see how the atomic structures of catalytic materials evolve over time under the conditions of their use, and in this way provide understandings to guide the design of new energy-efficient catalysts. The work will make it possible to answer long standing questions that include the following. How does catalyst structure help guide molecules along specific reaction pathways? What are the important intermediates involved in these transformations? How do the structures and reactivity of catalytic materials, as well as the chemistry of their interfaces, vary with reaction conditions? Is it possible to develop new catalytic materials using new knowledge of the active structures and reaction mechanisms? The work will provide heretofore unavailable experimental tools that can be applied in advanced programs of research addressing such questions.
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Laser powder-bed fusion (LPBF) is an additive manufacturing (AM) technology that uses high-power sintering lasers to precisely construct metal designs. Material is accumulated by selectively sintering regions of a metal powder layer to a growing structure underneath forming a 3D geometry. Certain conditions make fusion in this process to operate in "keyhole-mode," characterized by targeted materials evaporating as plasma. While keyhole-mode operations can produce deeper molten pools than that observed in "conduction-mode", this mode of operation is often undesirable, as its molten regions can collapse on themselves, encapsulating metal vapors and forming cavities. The formation of such cavities negatively affects strength and consistency of the fused materials. To identify and avoid these detrimental effects of keyhole-mode operation, considerable data collection and analysis regarding this mode of operation is needed. Therefore, under the support of the "Open Data Initiative," Lawrence Livermore National Lab is releasing a dataset for analysis of this keyhole effect, and the conditions which transition operation from conduction-mode to keyhole-mode melting. This dataset consists of 600+ micrographs from laser powder-bed single track runs, with differing cross-section angles and input parameters, operating under both normal and keyhole mode operations. This journal documents the collection, organization, and usage of this dataset.
Currently, cryo-EM is the most powerful tool for structural analysis of large biomacromolecules, but there are still problems in that biomacromolecules are denatured at the air-interface and their orientations are limited in a specific orientation. We solved this problem at LBL by developing a streptavidin-coated EM grid. Use of such affinity-binding grids can minimize exposure to air-interface by keeping biomacromolecules bound to streptavidin. It is urgently needed to make such grids readily available to the cryo-EM community, but they are somewhat difficult to make. The goal of the CRADA with Hummingbird company was to mass-produce the streptavidin grids so that they would become readily available to the cryo-EM community. Our contribution to the CRADA was to first help Hummingbird to replicate the manual process that we use, and this was completed successfully.
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In this Final Report, we are pleased to report that all technical innovation goals as described in the original grant proposal have been achieved. We also provide yet to be published results highlighting the new capabilities enabled by this new technology concept. Also contained in this Final Report is a summary of publications, presentations, software dissemination, as well as Ph.D. dissertations.
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